He was outstanding at Chelsea and, despite the rantings of one somewhat unhinged Portuguese, he was equally as good at Old Trafford where he certainly stood up to their desperate attempts to win decisions.

This is a referee who gets all the top games now. Ahead of the United game I referred to the fact that he ended last season with the Champions League Final and four games in the Euros in France included the final which saw the hosts beaten by Portugal.

Already this season he’s refereed a World Cup qualifier between Iceland and Turkey, three Champions League games at Borussia Dortmund, Besiktas and Seville, a Europa League game and a friendly international.

That’s a total of six games and added to that are eight domestic games, all of them in the Premier League. There have been 32 yellow cards and just one red card in those games. Of the yellows, sixteen have gone to both home team players and away team players. The one player he has sent off, in our game at Old Trafford, was Manchester United’s Ander Herrera.

Seville v Juventus was his last game on 22nd November but his last domestic game was two weeks ago, the goalless draw between Southampton and Liverpool. Both teams received one yellow card, Cedric Soares of Southampton and Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho.

He has had his moments refereeing Burnley, none more so than when he went card mad two seasons ago in our home game against Hull, but he is now considered our best referee and I do believe his two performances in Burnley games this season have shown that.

The assistant referees are Jake Collin (Merseyside) and Darren Cann (Norfolk). The fourth official is Kevin Friend (Leicestershire) whose last Burnley game was the 1-0 win at Preston in April of this year.